Corporate Wellness Blog

Health screenings are important programs to identify chronic disease in their early stages. Once identified, wellness behavior modification programs can help prevent a disease from progressing. Working with local hospitals and other corporations, you can get information on providing screening and behavior modification programs that might better your employees’ health and save your business money in absenteeism, treatment for disease complications, and reduced productivity. Below are some ideas to help get you started.

Based on your Employee Needs & Interest Survey and the demographics of your workplace, consider offering periodic screenings to find specific health risks such as:

• Blood Pressure Checks to identify staff members with pre-hypertension or hypertension (high blood pressure),
• Cholesterol Screenings for total, HDL (good cholesterol), LDL (bad cholesterol) and/or Triglycerides
• Blood Sugar Screenings fasting or non-fasting to screen for possible diabetes,
• Body composition, such as body mass index (BMI) or body fat measures
• Bone density for potential risk of osteoporosis,
• Cancer screenings such as, skin examinations, mammograms, or PSA screenings,
• Vision checks for glaucoma, or visual acuity
• Other health screenings depending on your worker population and needs

Your local hospital, employer physician practice, or health department may support assistance. However, if you have employees you may want to concentrate on programs that will keep them healthy rather than screening for early identification of chronic conditions. The focus of your wellness program might be healthy lifestyle practices to cut risk and prevent disease.

In addition to the health screenings, consider offering a Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment to all employees. The Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment will help to identify factors that may lead to additional risks, such as smoking history, stress levels, image of health, family history, job satisfaction, support systems, and mental health. Often the screening results are included on the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, which supports a more inclusive snap shot of health risks. The summary results provide the valuable information to plan appropriate interventions.

Company Wellness Program Interventions

The key to the performance of screenings and Health Risk Appraisals / Health Risk Assessments is the interventions or follow-up programs. The information from the screenings increases awareness and frequently motivates employees to consider making healthier changes. It’s the follow up interventions that support the essential reinforcement and assistance required for employees to actually make and maintain those changes. The interventions have the potential to include individual follow-up and ongoing counseling, individual or group health coaching on the risk factors, behavior modification programs, and/or business reinforcement. Examples include:

• Strategies to decrease Blood Pressure
• Managing diabetes
• Taking care of your heart
• Healthy eating
• Weight loss ideas
• Growing physical exercise
• Smoking Cessation

Of course, this is for individual information only. Any follow-up interventions planned by the business would be based on interest expressed by the employee.

Based on the results and your Worksite Health Promotion Program Committee goals/objectives you have the potential to plan the best strategies for your corporation and workers. Consider the neighborhood resources available to support services, such as health associations, hospitals, medical providers, and/or public health agencies.